Rebecca Brock

There’s a word for a book like Barry Hoffman’s BLINDSIDED. And that word is “appallingly abysmal.”

Okay. Maybe there are two words.

On the surface, the plot is straightforward and simple: A reporter gets on the bad side of a drug dealer and is murdered. Her considerable estate will go to her junkie sister if she cleans up. With me so far? Okay, then hold on, because it’s going to go all screwy.

The estate is to be controlled by Shara, a ballsy bounty hunter from Hoffman’s other books who has tattoos of eyes on her boobs (a pair for each person she’s killed) and a tendency to walk around topless. Shara lives with Renee, a teenage girl whose father is in prison for killing her mother, who falsely accused him of abuse because she became a religious zealot after the death of her son. Shara also mentors Alexis, another teenage girl who is severely handicapped after a brutal rape, who is the daughter of her on-again, off-again bounty hunting partner, Briggs. Shara obviously has a lot of drama on her plate, and this book has way too much plot for its own good.

So in the midst of all that, Shara now has to deal with the junkie Denise, who has the ever-popular dark secret in her past that destroyed her relationship with her sister, Deidre. And oh, yeah … there’s a magic forest that may or may not be evil.

Your reaction right now? With the eye-rolling and the muttering under your breath? Yeah. Me, too.

The premise of BLINDSIDED – with the murder and the junkie and the bounty hunter trying to find the killer – might have been enough for a short story. To stretch it out to novel-length, however, Hoffman stuffs it with characters from all the other books in the series (four, including this one) and the whole magic forest subplot. He also throws in psychic connections via dreams and an extended flashback that explains what made the junkie Denise such a sparkling example of humanity and, of course, a sprinkling of sex scenes (mostly lesbian-flavored).

Hoffman has sections where he shows the hints of being a decent writer, but he’s a lousy plotter. Sure, a novel should have a subplot or two, but not at the expense of the main storyline. This book is just all over the place. Characterization is also a weak point, as Hoffman depends too heavily on the readers’ prior knowledge of Shara and company from the previous books in the series. I just didn’t care about any of the characters; I found Shara unlikable, Denise despicable and everyone else interchangeable.

Plus, there’s that damn magic forest. What the hell is up with that? –Rebecca Block

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